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Bay Looking Inward, Searching for Stroke

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — There is a popular image of Jason Bay as a lost soul, a man untethered from his true self.

How else to explain his struggles in the last couple of years?

It is a bit dramatic, but still, Bay does not brush such imagery aside. Asked about it Thursday afternoon, he nodded his head in understanding.

“I get it,” Bay said. “If you struggle for a day, a week, a month — or if you’re going on a couple of years now — obviously there’s going to be talk and theories about it. I understand why everyone has an opinion about it now.”

Bay went on about “being myself” and “finding comfort” and “good feelings,” and the perception of him as a cerebral player navigating his own head space was reinforced.

Bay, a three-time All-Star who appeared to lose his way at the plate after joining the Mets for the 2010 season, knows that he has become a popular subject for armchair psychologists and frustrated fans alike.

In his first two seasons with the team, he batted .251 with 18 home runs, after hitting more than 30 home runs in four of his previous five seasons.

Bay has also had a slow spring. He entered the Mets’ game Thursday night against the Houston Astros having gone 7 for 33 with 10 strikeouts, no home runs and no runs batted in.

“I honestly don’t know what my average is, but I know I don’t have a home run, I know I don’t have an R.B.I., I know all that,” Bay said. “I’m not standing here telling you results don’t matter. But we’ve got a timetable to try to figure things out. That’s what this time is for, and I feel like now I have a pretty good grasp going forward.”

Bay is so consistently forthright about his struggles and shortcomings that it is easy to believe him when he speaks of minor successes, small steps in the right direction and general positivity.

Late last season, Bay scrapped the overly technical approach he had adopted to boost his production at the plate and took a simpler approach. “Get ready, hit the baseball,” as he described it.

Photo

Before Thursday night’s game against Houston, Jason Bay was 7 for 33 with 10 strikeouts, no home runs and no runs batted in.Credit
Brad Barr for The New York Times

Dave Hudgens, the Mets’ hitting coach, said that Bay was a batter who relied on “rhythm” and “feel” and that their unending conversations about hitting were now tailored to that fact.

It is not that Bay does not make adjustments. He simply has decided not to get bogged down in the minutiae of his movements. Since owning up to these realities, Bay believes he has made great strides.

After batting practice Thursday, Bay spoke animatedly with Hudgens behind the backstop, pantomiming the opening movements of his swing. Both walked away smiling.

“Today was by far the best day I’ve had,” Bay said a few minutes later in the clubhouse.

He said he liked to focus on one “key” per day, toy with it, and either implement it or discard it. The things he worked on Thursday clicked, he said.

In the game against the Astros, Bay drew a walk from Livan Hernandez in the second inning. In the fourth, he sat back on a full-count breaking ball before lacing it into left field for a single. He drew a walk later in that inning, and in the seventh he lined out to left field.

“I can’t do a psychological test, that’s a little out of my league,” Hudgens said of Bay. “But he’s going to be fine. I like what his swing is doing. And we know we’ve got a few more days to get it locked in.”

Those around Bay are well aware of his struggles. But they appreciate that his professionalism and quiet leadership have never wavered.

“Jason’s always at an even keel, he doesn’t get too high, he doesn’t get too low,” outfielder Lucas Duda said. “That’s hard to do when you’re not hitting as well as you want, or not playing as well as you want, and I really respect that about him.”

Ultimately, if Bay rebounds this season, if he rediscovers the whip in his swing and the power in his bat, it will represent the culmination of a long period of introspection and will mean that he has found ease within himself.

“Honestly, whether people believe it or not, I’m just trying to go out there and be myself,” Bay said. “I just want to be comfortable and then let the chips fall where they may.”

INSIDE PITCH

David Wright hit a grand slam in the fourth inning of the Mets’ 9-1 win over the Astros in Port St. Lucie. ... Mike Pelfrey allowed one run and three hits in six and one-third innings, lowering his spring training earned run average to 8.59. ... Infielder Jordany Valdespin was optioned to the minor leagues, and five players — the left-hander Garrett Olson, outfielders Adam Loewen and Matt den Dekker, and catchers Lucas May and Rob Johnson — were reassigned to minor league camp.

A version of this article appears in print on March 30, 2012, on page B9 of the New York edition with the headline: Bay Looks Inward, Searching For Stroke. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe